Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert was asked about the possibility of losing restricted free agent Emmanuel Sanders a few weeks at the owners meetings and was pretty straight forward with his response.
“We’ll wait to see what fits. If a player makes sense, if we think he’s a better player and we can make it fit financially, then we’ll investigate,” said Colbert. “There are really no limitations on looking for other guys.”
So now that Sanders has signed a one-year offer sheet with the New England Patriots, Colbert will have the ultimate say as to whether or not he leaves. As I pointed out in my last post, there are ways to create the necessary cap space, assuming of course that the offer sheet is only for $4 million.
Colbert also made it sound like he was also open to looking at other free agents, should Sanders wind up leaving. The Steelers have already had free agent wide receiver Steve Breaston, who had his best statistical years under offensive coordinator Todd Haley, for a visit. If his knee checks out, he would be a much cheaper alternative to Sanders.
Early Doucet is another wide receiver that was drafted while Haley was with the Arizona Cardinals, and like Breaston, he too is currently a free agent.
We will know in a matter of five days if Colbert thinks that it makes sense to keep Sanders. He was well aware that he could be in this situation and his decision will have a big effect on what happens in the draft later on this month.
